£15.98

The first of the new wave of indie labels in the mid-70s was Chiswick Records of Camden Town, a centre of Irish entertainment in North London. Ted Carroll had been running the Rock On market stall in Golborne Rd since 1971 and had expanded his empire with a stall in Soho and then a proper retail outlet in N5. Roger Armstrong ran the Soho location and had aspirations to produce records. Eventually the two of them turned up North London’s finest Polish, New Zealand, American, English R&B outfit who were renamed the Count Bishops and cut a hot and sweaty EP on a very hot and sweaty summer evening in Stoke Newington. And so a label was born. Ted and Roger soon recruited third partner Trevor Churchill who had real record company experience in abundance. Through Trevor’s contacts, the great British rock’n’roll record ‘Brand New Cadillac’ was licensed from EMI and garnered a lot of radio play.

There followed the 101ers with pre-Clash Joe Strummer, the Gorillas with post-Crushed Butler Jesse Hector, Radiators from Space with future Pogue Philip Chevron, the debut release from Motorhead with eternally there Lemmy, John’s Children survivor Andy Ellison fronting early power popsters Radio Stars, Johnny Moped led by Croydon outsider Johnny Moped and a whole lot of great pop and rock’n’rollin’ went on. Eventually we bumped into a couple of hits with the very ramalamadoowop Rocky Sharpe and the Replays and at the other end of the musical spectrum the very svelte Sniff ‘n’ the Tears in the ‘Drivers Seat’ of a very fine convertible. We were nothing if not eclectic round our way.

Along the way the Bishops stopped making Counts of themselves and turned into a muscular rhythm and blues and rock outfit, tearing apart the Strangeloves’ ‘I Want Candy’ before it made its chart bow (wow wow). Having let the Damned slip through our fingers first time out we were there to catch them second time around for their epic “Machine Gun Etiquette” album and a few more hits.

As the 80s loomed, rock’n’roll took a bit of a backseat to the massed synths of serious young men and women and the fun went out of it for a while. We looked to Albania to stay hip and up to date, had a go with two nice lads doing excellent soul funk, but they weren’t called Wham, who appeared a year after Two Two. We tried to be very pop but really we were more rock’n’roll, so we called it a day in 1983 with a Dr Feelgood record and then had a last gasp shot in the direction of the charts a year later with ‘La Bamba’ and our old friend Rocky Sharpe. But by then we were pretty much full time being Ace Records – and no bad thing. But it was all good clean fun while it

Delivery & Returns

We offer free P&P to UK addresses. For all other territories packaging is free and postage is charged on a weight basis.

We use Royal Mail First Class for UK deliveries and standard Air Mail for all other territories, very large orders will usually be sent via parcelforce.
You may cancel your order at any time prior to your order being dispatched by emailing us at orders@acerecords.com
ensuring that you quote your name, address and order reference number or by telephoning +44 (0) 208 453 1311 between 9am and 5pm GMT/BST, Monday to Friday. Please note: As music downloads are dispatched immediately after purchase, there is no possibility of cancelling these orders.

In the event that any products supplied to you by us are damaged or defective, we agree to replace or repair the damaged or defective products or refund the amount you paid for such goods (including postage & packaging) providing you notify us (either via post at or e-mail: orders@acerecords.com
) and return the goods within 28 days of purchase. Physical goods should be sent back to us in the same condition you received them to: “Returns” Bus Stop Mail Order Ltd, 42-50 Steele Road, London, NW10 7AS. Music downloads should be returned to us via the e-mail address above including a copy of your notification.

You have the right to cancel your order within seven days of purchase, or seven days of receipt of the goods (whichever is the longer). If you choose to cancel your order, full payment will be returned to you. Returned items should be sent to: “Returns” c/o Bus Stop Mail Order Ltd, 42-50 Steele Road, London, NW10 7AS. Music downloads should be returned to us via the email address: orders@acerecords.com including a copy of your notice of cancellation and order number.